Augusta

We arrived in Atlanta last night and stayed by the airport after we collected the car. All very pleasant and we were tired from the flight, so were glad of a comfy room in which to flop! This morning we got up at a reasonable 8am and ate a decent breakfast before driving across to Augusta. Here we were able to leave the luggage at the hotel before we ventured downtown to explore.
We parked the car under cover to avoid too much solar heating and consulted the map. Broad Street and the Riverwalk seemed to be places to look at and would take us by some interesting sites, so we walked that way.

Broad Street is a dual carriageway with a green island running down the middle. We strolled along one side, then realised that we were on the wrong side for Artists' Row where there are Art and Craft galleries, coffee shops and  restaurants. We crossed over and soon came to the New Moon Cafe where we went in for coffee. A popular place on a Sunday morning, we were lucky to find a table, but were soon tucking into coffee and warm blueberry muffins served in little baskets with butter. Plenty of people were having brunch, reading newspapers or just gossiping with friends. It is a very friendly place. All done, we wandered in next door to one of the galleries and enjoyed a chat with the owner. She told us stories about the Augusta National Golf Course - how they were apparently, covering the roots of the azaleas with ice to try and hold back the flowers that threatened to come too early for The Masters, because of the mild winter. However, this wasn't successful; the azaleas had flowered and there would be no grand floral display this year!
After visiting other galleries along Artists' Row, we turned and walked back along Broad Street to find the statue of James Brown, the Confederate Monument and a couple of other landmarks. There is the Augusta Common, a green square just off Broad Street that hosts a statue of founder, James Oglethorpe. He was a British General who named the settlement on the banks of the Savannah River after the then Princess of Wales, Augusta. Here the 14th annual Mayor’s Masters Reception will be held tomorrow with this year’s honorary golfer, Tom Watson.
We made our way down to the Visitor Information Centre at the side of the Augusta Museum of History which we then went in to visit. There is a special exhibition on just now all about the history of The Masters. That was very interesting and we enjoyed reading about and seeing artifacts from the tournament in days gone by. 
Now we walked down to the river to experience the Riverwalk. This began with a bit of excitement as we descended the steps to the river level. Suddenly there was a flash of fur across the stone steps as a little mouse shot out from the undergrowth, followed by a snake. A woman just passing me screamed - I had stopped to look at a bright green lizard! The snake threw itself back into the bushes when it saw all the humans around and the mouse crouched in the corner of the steps, then also disappeared back into the shrubs. We just looked on, mesmerised by the swiftness of the action which was over in seconds.
We followed the lower Riverwalk as far as the Morris Museum of Art where we climbed up to the entrance and went in to view their Masters related exhibition as well as their normal collection. There were some lovely examples of Southern American Art which we really enjoyed. We spotted this sign on the way back to the car - it seems that some people use their golf carts down town.

We drove to the Hampton Inn where will stay for the nights we are at the golf, and sussed out what to do tomorrow which will start very early. Apparently we can have breakfast there from 6am and they will take care of the bags until we get back from the golf and and check in. Then we had dinner at the Holiday Inn and got to bed early because of the early start tomorrow.





Augusta
Artists' Row
Museum of History
Riverwalk
Morris Museum of Art